Saturday, September 22, 2007

Gaming impact of children

Having children seriously reduces the amount of gaming one gets to do.They're really worth it, but it's a big impact. That's all well andgood to say, but let's see some numbers.

First of all, to correct for annual events and the like, I looked at asliding window of 365 days. Prior to having kids, it was somewhatvariable, but going into 2004 it was pretty steady at around 550 gamesevery 365 days. Then, the drop. In the first year of my daughter'slife, I fell below 400 games/year and it gradually climbed back up toabout 450 when my son came along. Let me tell you, the second is abigger impact than the first, and the numbers bear me out, both as apercentage and as an absolute value. In the first year of my son'slife, the rate fell to 266/year and hasn't recovered much since. So:

First child: 30% drop (then up 10% after 2 years) (-150 games/year)

Second child: 40% drop (-175 games/year)

On the flip side, my daughter is ranked 4th among people I play themost games with for the year so far (in the top 75 overall), afterthree game night regulars. And that's only games played according tothe essentially correct rules, and to completion. With her, currentlyage 3, the big hits are Go Away Monster!, Monza, Who Lives Where? andany "daddy game" she can get her hands on. Plus, she's become a verygood rules explainer. The other day she taught me the full rules toKarambolage, exactly correctly and very clearly. Hopefully, as shegets older the interest will remain.

Personal

Professional

I am a Engineering Director at Google. My team and I work on Search.

Previously, I was the CTO at an 802.11 location and security company, Newbury Networks in Boston. In June, 1999 I received my Masters degree from the MIT Media Lab. I graduated from MIT (undergraduate) in June, 1997, in physics. Prior to that I was CTO of net.Genesis from 1994 to 1996.